The Portland daily press., 1887-06-11


| will describe two funerals that l wit
messed in one day at the great cemetery at
Seville. Four little bare footed boys arrive
at the cemetery gates. Between them they
carry little blue-and-white coffin. They
jog along, chatting and laughing, up the long
avenue Of. trees. Presently they see some
thing which attracts their attention. a bird
in tree. Down they drop the coffin by the
roadside and off they scamper across the
grass to the tree. They pick up stones and
begin to throw at the bird, In the process
they quarrel about something, and two of the
boys have to fight. In the mean time the
coffin lies in the roadway. / walk up to it,
and through the glass LET into the lid, / see
the dead child's face. 1t had been dead per-
haps IL hours, so the features are unchanged.
People pass me; mo one takes any notice of the
coffin on the road. One old gentleman near
ly tumbles over 1t and swears. 1t is evil
IDENTIFY nothing unusual. Presently these
ragged boys have arranged their little differ
ences, return and pick up the coffin. Two of
them have lighted cigarettes. They carry
their burden right across the cemetery TO a
| little house, where two or three men with
brass numbers on their caps, are smoking
cigarettes Here they show paper, and one
| of the men, picking up a spade, tells the boys
| to follow him. OFF they go, jogging the cof-
i'm now this way and now that, and follow
them. We come to a long line of brick
vaults Some are empty; some are filled up
to the top with what presume to be mold.
| The gfave-digger turns over the loose earth
| with his spade, and strikes coffin here and
there. 1t is too full. He moves on to another
bricked square, pushes his spade in, and says
| there is just room. He digs little hole and
lays the coffin flush with the brick-work.
| Then he throws a few spadefuls of earth
from mound close by, and the ceremony is
over. There are thousands of these bricked
squares in the cemetery, and each contains a
| score OF collins. There is no stone over the
top only tho loose brown earth. Some of
them are so full that the earth has to be piled
| up to cover the coffin, and thus the coffin is
actually above ground.
The next funeral arrived as / was leaving
| the cemetery A car, driven by man
smoking a cigarette, came up. 1t was followed
| by a cab, from which alighted an old gent
| leman, also smoking cigarette. The car pull
ed up at the gate of the depository" a little
house in the grounds arranged for the recep-
| tion of the pe0pld who have died too late to
be buried that day. The guardian of the
house, cigarette in mouth filings open the
| doors, speaks to the gentleman, and then
calls for some one to come. A man with a
cigarette in his mouth now approaches. He
and the car-driver lift out the coffin and
carry it into the house and lay it on the trest-
les. Then they light a candle at the head
| and foot, and come out and shut the door.
On drives the car, the man lighting another
cigarette, and the gentleman to whom the
with the graye-digger to choose 'his place. .
The ,grave-digger turns up a little earth in
| one brick square and then in another "Too
full, says the gentleman, putting his cigar
ette. He goes from square to square and
pokes the loose earth with his cane At last
he settles on square which is only half full.
That will do" he says, and then he returns
to his cab and drives away.